


bifurcation

by laufire



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M, Wolf Klaus Mikaelson, doppelgangers in a way lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-16 14:19:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13638003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laufire/pseuds/laufire
Summary: Prompt: a group of witches trying to separate Klaus from his immortality accidentally separate Klaus and his wolf, which takes the form of a nonverbal but not impaired second Klaus that, acting on instinct, runs away and finds Caroline in Mystic Falls.





	bifurcation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brophigenia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brophigenia/gifts).



> I tried to include everything I could from your original prompt and to overlook everything you didn't like, but the story kind of did what it wanted to at some points. I hope you like it :)
> 
> This is set in a nebulous, not-totally-canon-compliant point after season 6 of TVD and the beginning of season 3 of TO.

_The pads of his paws appreciated the change from gravel to soil, relieved._

_He wasn’t aware of where he was supposed to arrive. He wasn’t aware of much, truth be told. He simply marched forward, driven by an inner force that impulsed him to keep walking for hours during the night, on an almost straight path._

_He could feel in his blood he’d almost reached his destination. The sky was barely beginning to lighten, and he was growing more and more tired by the second. But he needed to keep going, and to finish his journey before the sun came out..._

* * *

Caroline was coming back home from  _not_  visiting her mother’s grave -first overthinking the flowers, then whether she should bring something else, and finally, simply standing paralyzed in the middle of the path, not knowing which way she wanted to go- when she heard something moving and breathing heavily among the trees.

She stood still, taking a defensive position, as soon as she saw it -she could distinguish a werewolf on sight. It was almost dawn; she was sure she could fend for herself and just wait out for a transformation.

However, it didn’t seem to mean her any harm. It had stopped a few feet away from her, staring directly at her face, with something akin to recognition.

As the soon started to rise, the wolf changed, slowly, one painful bone crack after the other. The person left standing in his place was the last one she’d expected.

“Klaus…”

He hadn’t tried to get on his feet, his hands digging on the floor, his face a rictus of pain. She approached him slowly, telegraphing her movements, and laid a hand on his shoulder, which seemed to calm him down, barely.

“What happened?” She asked, as softly as she could.

He emitted a low grunt, without so much as forming one understandable word.

She didn’t know what to do. Leaving him there in the open seemed… callous. But she wasn’t completely sure of if she wanted to help him.

Klaus raised his head and looked her in the eyes, pleading and exhausted, as if he had read her mind. She sighed, cursing every decision she’d ever made that took her to that particular path in that particular night.

So she took pity on his vulnerable state, and tried to think of a way to sneak him into the town. But first, she took off her coat and covered him with it. Naked men drew too much attention.

* * *

Klaus threw the table of Marcel’s apartment against the wall in a fit of rage, letting out a frustrated scream with him.

Those damn witches… he’d slaughtered every one of them, but it didn’t change his current situation.

“That was an antique, you know?” Marcel bitched, with a tight smirk.

“We need to find that damn wolf!”

“Throwing a tantrum isn’t going to help, man.”

Klaus glared at Jackson. He shouldn’t even be there; he’d only been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and therefore made fifty percent of the people who knew about his predicament. He’d killed for less, but even if there was no doubt that Klaus would end up on top on if that fight happened, Jackson would likely sneak in at least one bite. Which he now was vulnerable to. He wouldn’t die, but he wasn’t keen on the hours of hallucinations and torment that’d come with it.

“I need a witch,” he demanded, “your girl, or the other one, I don’t care. I need this fixed.”

“Davina would be the last person in the world to help you, Klaus;” Marcel said, irritated, “and if by “the other one” you mean Vincent, he won’t help you either. He wants nothing to do with magic.”

“He’ll change his mind when I’m done with him,” Klaus threatened.

“No, he won’t, not this one.” Marcel laughed, a shit-eating, prideful grin on his face.

"I don't think you're taking this seriously."

"Oh, I am. If you aren't the Original hybrid, your blood won't cure a werewolf bite. Not the best timing, giving the pack of untrustworthy hybrids in the city." He added, as an insincere afterthought: "No offense."

“You do know you have a witch sister, right?” Jackson asked Klaus, not bothering answering Marcel, “I know is recent, but you live with her, you can’t have forgotten her already.”

“My family and I aren’t on the best of terms right now.”

Freya wasn’t angry at him anymore, but she wanted to mend fences between him and Elijah. And she’d want Klaus to tell him, to use it to bring peace. He wasn’t sure if Elijah wouldn’t be still mad enough with him to consider his loss of power akin to poetic justice.

“She’s probably the only witch on the face of the earth willing to help  _you_.”

He had to concede that.

* * *

Caroline had made Klaus sit on her couch, thrown a blanked at him, and gone to look for clothes for him so that she could stop trying not to look at his junk.

She searched in the storage room, finally finding a box of her father’s old clothes -she’d have to reorganize the room later, when she had the time. She picked a few shirts and black sweatpants -she couldn’t find underwear, sadly- that could pass as your average workout clothes, because she couldn’t really see Klaus in her father’s dress shirts. Or any of his clothes, but this was what was available. Maybe she should get him some clothes that fit him better? No, what the hell, she wasn’t going to buy the guy clothes, she wasn’t his keeper. He was rich, he could buy himself all the clothes he wanted.

She left the clothes in front of him. He, at least, didn’t seem to need help with that. Then she went the kitchen and grabbed a few blood bags. He must’ve been starved; if he’d crossed paths with regular humans he could have torn them apart.

But when she offered one to him, he recoiled violently against the wall.

A werewolf transformation that obeyed the phases of the moon, the blood, the fact that he had yet to speak a word… an idea was starting to form on the back of her mind.

She went back to return the bag to the fridge, backing away slowly. She put on the kitchen gloves and opened the drawer where her mother used to keep the vervain and grabbed some.

Klaus was standing in the middle of the room, following her with his eyes. She approached him as slowly as she could stand, and grazed the skin of his arm with the herb.

Nothing.

She released the breath she’d been holding, her mind going a mile a minute.

None could find out. Damon and Bonnie had left town, so that was one threat less. Stefan probably wouldn’t have anything against Klaus, and Matt couldn’t do much, but still.

At least Tyler wasn’t in Mystic Falls anymore. He had every reason to hurt him.

A lot of people did.

And she didn’t know how the Heretics could play into this.

She sat on the couch, allowing herself  _one_  minute to feel overwhelmed, and Klaus sat right beside her. She could feel his eyes digging a hole in her skull.

She needed to call his siblings. They must be already looking for him. The problem was that after her last-  _conversation_  with Klaus, she’d erased all of their numbers, as a way to wipe the slate clean. And she doubted the family appeared in New Orleans’ yellow pages.

Matt probably had Rebekah’s number, but she thought Elijah would be far more reliable. Or even Klaus’ number; he wasn’t traveling with his phone, that’s for sure, and it must’ve been  _somewhere_.

And the only person who could have those numbers was Stefan. Who she was still avoiding.

She groaned, upset, repressing the urge to facepalm. She looked right at Klaus then, who hadn’t stopped staring at her, the creep.

“Why do you have to turn my life upside down every time you come back here, uh?”

* * *

Caroline had been trying to come up with a way of getting one of the Mikaelson’s numbers from Stefan’s phone the better part of the day. The problem wasn’t the lack of ideas, but the lack of nerve.

She’d decided to go shopping to psych herself up -and yes, to buy Klaus something. The guy couldn’t go around with no underwear, and she didn’t really like that he was wearing her father’s clothes, truth be told. She’d also decided she’d need more food, at least for today.

And as she got out of the grocery store, she found herself face to face with Salvatore senior.

They hadn’t talked, but it was obvious that Lily Salvatore remembered her. She didn’t look hostile, just curious.

“Mrs. Salvatore.” Caroline greeted her, her voice a little too high, not knowing what else to do to fill the awkward silence.

“Miss… Forbes, right? The switch-off girl.”

“Yes.” Apparently, she was the only one trying not to make things awkward!

“I heard about your mother. A tragic loss.”

A lash of pain hit at her stomach, but she repressed the biting words that wanted to escape her throat, seeing that she seemed to speak candidly. She nodded in recognition and decided to change topics.

“So, what were you looking for?”

“I was hoping to get something for my family. They’re still acclimating to this world.”

“Well, I… hope they do.” Lily responded with a skeptic stare that Caroline had seen thousands of times in Damon’s face. “No, seriously, is probably the best for everyone.”

She nodded, believing her this time, and went into the store after saying goodbye.

Well, there was no way talking to Stefan could be even half as awkward as  _that_ , at least.

When she arrived home, she found Klaus reading one of her mother’s books. He could clearly understand her, and read, and seemed to have a good grip on whatever was going on around him -he just wouldn’t talk.

She put all the bags on the table, getting out the clothes she’d bought for him. She smiled when she saw that he'd washed the dishes she'd used to make his lunch. Calling him "good dog" would've felt way too condescending, but in the limits of her own head it sounded hilarious.

He advanced to her, an inquiring look on his face, and proceeded to examine each and every one of them. He must’ve found them suitable, because the corners of his lips raised in an almost invisible smile, and he turned his face to kiss her.

She’d frozen in place. The kiss didn’t last more than three seconds, but when he left to go back to her book -an Agatha Christie novel, she recognized now, but she couldn’t see which one-, her lips still tingled.

What the hell. Seriously. What the hell.

* * *

“What you mean the spell doesn’t work?” Klaus asked, repressing the urge to scream at Freya.

“That it  _doesn’t work_ ,” she answered, at the verge of her patience. “You are  _here_ , and you aren’t. No location spell I know can work properly around that.”

Klaus bit down his tongue to not scream that maybe she could be of use if she’d actually paid attention to the supposedly limitless knowledge Dahlia had to offer. Instead, he kicked one of the chairs, taking pleasure on Marcel’s complains in the background.

* * *

“Hi! Eh- I think I left my shirt here when…?”

After the kiss, she’d decided that she needed to clear the situation as soon as possible, so she’d just went to the Salvatore house and blurted the first thing she thought of.

It was the truth, so that helped.

“Yeah, come in.”

There was something decidedly smug in Stefan’s smile. He seemed happy to see her, and he probably thought she was making an excuse to come here to see him.

Which was  _also_  technically true- except for the part where it wasn’t really about  _him_.

“I think I know where it is, if you want to-“

Caroline saw that Stefan had left his phone on the table, and quickly turned around, trying to cover it with her body.

“I think it’s better if I stay… here.”

He nodded, with an understanding smile, and started climbing the stairs.

She quickly grabbed his phone, thankful for the lack of password -she wanted to dance with joy at how easy it was being (she didn’t know what she could’ve possibly done if he’d had the phone on him), but she didn’t have much time-, and went to the “E”.

Elaine, Elena… no Elijah. Dammit.

She could hear some noise from upstairs, so she went to the “K” -if nobody answered, she could always get Rebekah’s number from Matt’s phone; it’d be substantially easier- and committed Klaus’ number to memory, putting the phone down right before Stefan entered the room.

He presented her the shirt, folded and with the fainted scent of a floral detergent.

She kind of wanted to throw it in the mud in frustration. She wouldn’t, obviously, but she wanted to.

* * *

Klaus answered his phone pleasantly surprised, ignoring the three pairs of eyebrows that raised at his change of tone.

“Hello, Caroline.”

“Wait. Klaus?”

“Who else did you expect to answer, love?”

“No, it’s just-“

There was an abrupt pause on the other side of the phone, while Klaus patiently waited for an explanation.

“How are you  _right now_?”

That seemed too specific to be mere concern about his emotional state.

“I admit I’m not on my best moment. So if you called for help with a werewolf bite, I fear-”

“I think you need to come to Mystic Falls.”

“That’s not what you said last time. In any case, I have an urgent issue to deal with-“

“If by “issue” you mean your werewolf Doppelganger, he’s sitting on my couch.”

“First of all, you keep interrupting me. That’s really unpolite of you.” He teased. “Second of all, I resent the term “Doppelganger”; he’s not a copy, he’s me; we’ve just been split for the moment. And finally: I’ll see you in Mystic Falls.”

And he hung up, because he liked the dramatism.

“I’ll grab the keys,” he said to Freya, “we leave in an hour.”

She didn’t move from her chair, and neither did the two men. They all stared at him like he’d grown two heads.

“What?”

“Your wolf form,” Jackson started, “functioning on pure instinct, didn’t go to any of your siblings, to your family. It went to some random girl in some lost American town.”

“There’s nothing random about Caroline Forbes. She color-codes her calendar.” Impatient, he clapped his hands, rushing Freya. “Come on. We need to leave.”

Neither of them moved, and their eyebrows almost touched their hairlines, but he was not going to let their attitude ruin his good mood.

* * *

Her stomach dropped the next evening, when she heard the sound of a car parking close by.

She’d spent a quiet night with… wolf-Klaus. He wanted to read, to be close to her, and to help her. The only minor problem had been when he’d wanted to sleep beside her, but she’d felt it was crossing a line, and worse, that vampire-Klaus would somehow  _know_ , and he’d never let her forget it. So she’d prepared the guest room for him.

She fixed her hair absentmindedly in a mirror, chastising herself when she realized what she’d done. Irritated, she went to open the door and invite them in.

“That is… not your sister.” She deadpanned.

“Nice to see you too.” He greeted her, his voice all syrup. “Meet my long lost  _older_  sister, Freya, who my mother told us she was dead to hide that she’d sold her to a witch.”

“That does sound like your mother.” Freya snorted softly at that, amused. Caroline extended her hand to her and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

“Well, where’s the other one? I hope he didn’t bother you.” Klaus said, redirecting the attention to himself.

“Not at all. He’s a lot sweeter than you, actually; he cleans after himself,” she told him, snippy, and then he added looking at Freya, hoping to find an accomplice “and he doesn’t talk, which is a  _vast_  improvement.”

“I bet it is.” She agreed, amused.

She heard steps behind her back, and all of them turned to look at the other Klaus.

Ugh, the name thing was going to be a pain.

* * *

Freya had been examining both Klaus for over half an hour, while Caroline alternating between fidgeting in the living room along with them, and cursing that wolf-Klaus’ tidiness kept her from stress cleaning.

When she finally stopped her chants, the look on her face didn’t scream good news.

“I know how to reverse it,” she started, “but there are a few complications. It needs to be under another full moon, on the same sacred spot. And it requires at least five witches and a lot of preparation. We’d need to leave as soon as possible.”

When she heard that, Caroline’s chest tightened, her heart skipping a beat in what was, frankly, a disproportionate reaction. She could count the hours she’d spent with the guy, she’d felt uncomfortably awkward over half of them and he wouldn’t even maintain a conversation with her.

But one look around the house could tell you he’d been there. The Agatha Christie novel - _By the Pricking of My Thumbs_ , it’d turned out to be-, the clean sink, and just… his mere presence made the place feel actually lived-in.

She’d felt  _so damn lonely_  in that house.

When she raised her eyes, she discovered Klaus -both Klaus-es- and Freya had been staring at her, and she got a  _little_ defensive.

“What.”

Klaus gave his sister a pointed look, to what she rolled her eyes.

“I’ll go take a walk,” she announced, just on the right side of annoyed, “a  _really_ long walk.” Then, looking at Klaus, “We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

She put on her jacket and walked through the door, waving her hand at them without looking back, and leaving Caroline alone -and slightly alarmed- with the two look-alikes.

* * *

"He seems to have taken a liking to you." He settled for that to diffuse the tension. In any case, it was the truth. His other half seemed to gravitate around Caroline, and he couldn't take his eyes off her for long. Klaus could relate. 

His stratagem seemed to work, because Caroline snapped at him. 

"He's  _you_. You're obsessed with me."

"That's not the word I would use, but sure."

 She bit her lip and closed her fists in frustration, shaking her head. "You're so infuriating."

"I bet you prefer it when I can't talk." He pointed at the other Klaus with his head as he said that. 

"He's certainly your better half."

At her easy agreement, just to be a little shit, he asked, moving his eyebrows suggestively:

"Did you two ever...?"

"What- how-  _no!"_

"Seriously?" he asked, surprised and a little displeased. As ridiculous as it may sound, he couldn't help but be a tad jealous of himself at the moment.

"No! He kissed me,  _once_ , completely out of the blue! I wasn't- I didn't  _take advantage_ or anything like that." 

Amused at the fact that  _that_ was what had her so nervous, he laughed uproariously, seeing it echoed in the complicit smirk of his double. 

"I think he'd been fine with that." 

She looked between the two of them, a heated, curious-despite-herself look in her eyes. And Klaus knew how to recognize an opening. He leaned forward stopping when his face was mere millimeters away from hers.

"I know I would love it if you took advantage of me."

Her eyes dropped to his lips, dark and hungry, and she sat on top of him, pulling his head back.

"Shut up." 

She kissed him, hard and bruising, and he was happy to let her take control, laying back with parsimony.

He heard a noise besides them, and they both turned to it. It was his double, staring at them with curiosity.

Caroline examined them both with a calculating look, and put a hand in the other Klaus' cheek, leaning down to kiss him, much more slowly, but not less domineering.

She pulled his double hand under her shirt, directing him. Klaus, feeling left out, bend down to lightly bite at her neck.

"Hey!"

"It's  _his_  teeth you'll need to worry about."

Caroline pulled the two of them up, guiding them with kisses and caresses to her bedroom, losing all of their clothes along the way. Klaus took a second to try and catalog everything that had changed from the last time he was there, but was quickly distracted by Caroline pushing him to the bed.

She didn't lose time, climbing on top of him and starting to ride her as she pressed his back against the mattress. She kept a slow, maddening rhythm, that got slower every time she could read any sign of impatience; the pressure of his thumbs against her hips, the expression of his face, a word of encouragement.

While she kept that torture, she kissed the other Klaus, impassioned, while he got to touch her all over her body.

He felt her orgasm building up by the way her nails dug into his chest and her voice and her groans got higher and sharper. She picked up the tempo, getting to the frenetic rhythm he needed, and came on top of him, looking like a sun goddess. 

He followed her no long after that, feeling exhausted in all the best ways. She got off of him, laying down by her side as she caught her breath.

She raised on her shoulders, her eyes ahead. Klaus followed her stare, seeing his double above them, still hard as a rock.

"Round two for the other guy?" she asked, making him laugh.

It was a pity that those witches were all dead; otherwise, he'd send them flowers.

Oh well. The colors would compliment their headstones nicely.

* * *

The Mikaelsons were leaving early in the morning, which was making Caroline feel a little blue. 

Freya left them space to say goodbye, waiting next to the car and facing the other side of the streets. 

Wolf-Klaus went to her first, stepping over her personal space. She surrounded him with her arms and let herself melt against him in a tight, long hug, that she didn't stop when she heard vampire-Klaus clearing his throat.

She did stop it when wolf-Klaus' hands started to get dangerously under her hips. She mirrored his bold smile and kissed his cheek goodbye.

"I don't get a hug?"

"Nope," she teased him, remarking the "p" sound as much as possible.

"Not even a peck?" he asked, tapping his own cheek.

"Shut up," she said, pushing him playfully.

A slow, content smile expanded on his face. "Goodbye, Caroline."

"Goodbye."

And with that, both men turned around to leave, making her feel like she was seeing double (even the clothes she'd bought for wolf-Klaus were similar to the others, which she wasn't going to overthink).

Leaving her alone in that house again.

* * *

A week later, still feeling down, she had another encounter with Lily Salvatore.

She mostly stopped to talk to her out of loneliness. The woman was staring ahead, lost in his thoughts, and Caroline decided to sit beside her on the bench.

"Did you like your human self?" Lily asked her, without so much as looking at her.

The question made her remember a story Stefan had told her not so long ago, in a voicemail, about his mother. She had nothing better to do, so she took it seriously.

"I wasn't really that different. I'm still the same person, deep down." It had been something she'd think once or twice, and made peace with a while ago. "But humans are vulnerable. Which isn't so bad if they're surrounded by their peers, but once vampires got into town... I was vulnerable, and I was hurt. And I got killed."

Lily was now looking at her, measuring her. For some reason, Caroline didn't want to come up short, but she knew she'd be fine even if she did.

"And ironically that was the best thing that could happen to me;" she continued, "I like being capable to defend myself; I like being powerful, and how intense everything feels as a vampire. I love that I can have the entire world open and waiting for me to explore it and that-"

She stopped, realizing who she was paraphrasing.

"Excuse me, I need to- it was a pleasure talking to you, honestly, but I need to leave now."

She looked taken aback, and slightly offended with her manners, but she nodded and got lost in her own head again.

Caroline ran as fast as possible without using powers to her house, and packed everything she could under half an hour, knowing she might lose her nerve if she gave herself more time.

She got into her car, set the navigator straight to New Orleans, and breathed deeply, exactly one time, to calm her nerves. She was way too nervous, about something that -she kept telling herself- might be only a short visit.

She turned on the engine, smiling. At least for now, she needed to be around someone that made her feel as great as being immortal had always been.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope all of you enjoyed this story, especially my giftee :)


End file.
